SOME DOMESTIC SCIENCE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 972, 12 November 1910, Page 11

SOME DOMESTIC SCIENCE.

DUTCH DOINGS. In every country at the present time a feeling is spreading in favour of teaching domestic science to young girls of all classes (writes Elizabeth Sloan Ohesser, M.8.). Educated wives and mothers trained in child management are national assets. The knowledge that tl\e prevention of race degeneration can be best achieved by educating the women of the future, the mother citizens of the next generation,- iii cookery, housewifery, and' the care of children is beginning to be realised all over the

world. In addition to the big problems all infant mortality and national de-generation,-there must also be Considered the® servant problem, which is so acute everywhere. The success of a new municipal school started in Amsterdam for training girls for domestic science encourages educationalists .in Holland in the belief that, they have found a solution of the problem. There are about 150 students in the school, studying the two years' course in domestic science. These yoU'ng "girls "come about the age of twelve'^'o' fi.'fteen,.years—,that is,- wjieu they have left 'tlie elementary schools. - They belong to the class who become .domestic- servants, dressmakers, machinists, and the idea is to .provide ...them with a training which 'will fit them to start in life as young trained workers or useful servants. The subjects tought are similar- to our own curriculum in domestic science. . Tho course is divided into four classes of ;six.months, each. The girls are taught ; practical cookery, dietetics, , and eleielementary'" physiology in tlietwo- first, classes. In the. other courses they-take up housewifery, domestic economy, hygiene, laundry, and . all branches of ; needlework. ' At the same time they :are having-lessons from an elementary : school teacher, and they learn . a little chemistry antl physics, which gives 'them an intelligent interest in their hygiene subjects. Needlework is taught of a very practical nature. The superintendent of tho school, Miss Wolff j who is well known in educational circles in Holland, told me that her idea was to make girls practical, to fit them not.only to be.good servants but to be economical wives in the future. ' - Each student pays a small fee to the school, which varies according to. the weekly sum earned by■' the father, so that the education is in no sense free. The. Amsterdam School of: Domestic Science has been such a success that the question of starting similar schools' in South Africa,'- in the Orange Free State, and in the Transvaal, is at present under consideration. The idea is to provide domestic science training for tho, Boer peasant'farmers' daughters to meet the great need. for trained servants in South Africa, and to provide education and the means of self-sup-port to girls who urgently require a training of this sort. There is a great deal,of poverty amongst this' class in South Africa, and it is extremely difficult for a small Boer farmer to provide education for sons and daughters such as would lit them to earn a living. It is hoped that the school will bo founded within a few months on the same lines as the one in Amsterdam, which has proved such an unqualified success.